Oil hovered just below $50 a barrel on Wednesday, holding gains of more than a dollar this week, but expectations of another rise in U.S. fuel inventories restrained buying. U.S. light sweet crude for July delivery was up 18 cents at $49.85 a barrel, after gaining 51 cents on Tuesday on talk of refinery problems in the United States. Brent crude rose 11 cents to $48.93 a barrel, adding to a 45-cent rise on Tuesday. This is a very thin market, people are waiting for the inventory information," said Tetsu Emori, chief commodities strategist at Mitsui Bussan Futures in Tokyo. Prices for U.S. crude moved as high as $49.94 a barrel on Tuesday, but failed to breach the $50 mark. Oil has traded below that level since May 12. On Tuesday, news ExxonMobil Corp. had shut two furnaces at its Baytown oil refinery -- the largest in the United States -- stoked worries about gasoline supply just before the U.S. Memorial Day holiday weekend, the start of the high-gasoline demand summer vacation season. Company officials were unable to comment on whether the closures affected operations. U.S. inventory data will take center stage later on Wednesday. Analysts were expecting builds that would maintain gasoline stocks at levels comfortably higher than last year and push crude stockpiles to a fresh six-year high. Crude stocks were expected to rise by 1.2 million barrels, the 14th build in 15 weeks, a Reuters poll found. As demand picks up, gasoline stocks were forecast to increase by a more modest 400,000 barrels, although analysts said the supply cushion should be sufficient to last the summer. "We have to be careful of the pace of the gasoline inventory draw-down after the Memorial Day weekend, but even with the expected increase in gasoline demand this year, we can manage summer demand," Emori said.